Alexander Votes to "Stand Up on Behalf of the People of Tennessee to Uphold This Clean Air Rule"

Statement

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today voted to uphold a clean air rule that would require coal plants to install the same pollution control equipment the Tennessee Valley Authority has already committed to installing, saying, "TVA can't clean up Tennessee's air alone, because dirty air blows in from other states."

In a speech delivered on the Senate floor before the vote (Video HERE), Alexander said: "Let me say what upholding this rule will mean to the people of Tennessee: It will hasten the day that Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville are not three of the top five worst asthma cities in America and Nashville is not competing to be in the top 10."

"Upholding this rule means that visitors will soon not even think of calling the Great Smoky Mountains the Great Smoggy Mountains because it is one of the most polluted national parks in America. We want those 9 million visitors to keep coming every year with their dollars and their jobs."

"Instead of seeing 24 miles on a bad air day from Clingman's Dome, our highest peak, this rule should mean we will gradually move toward seeing 100 miles from Clingman's Dome as the air cleans up and we look through the natural blue haze."

"It should mean fewer health advisory warnings in our streams that say "Don't eat the fish because of mercury contamination.' Half of the manmade mercury in the U.S. comes from coal plants, and as much as 70 percent of the mercury pollution in the local environment, like our streams and rivers, can come from nearby coal plants.

"We have seen that had Nissan been unable to get an air quality permit in Nashville in 1980, it would have gone to Georgia. And if Senator Corker had not, as mayor of Chattanooga, improved the air quality in that city in the mid 2000s, the Volkswagen site there would be a vacant lot today."

To reduce costs to ratepayers, the senator said that he and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) would send a letter to the president urging him to allow six years to comply with the rule--a timeline many utilities have requested--and will introduce legislation to give utilities six years, if the president fails to do so.

Source